:: King of Cool

Another contribution to the world of magic from Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette..

There are lots of reasons why someone might want to become a magician.

Actually, there probably aren’t so many reasons.

But Chicagoan David Shareef picked the most unlikely of all, at least in the context of community plausibility standards.

Money.

“As I did more research, I found out how much money there was to be made,” Shareef said in a telephone interview. “Oh, my god. The average kid show magician can pull in $6,000 a month. There are so many multimillionaire magicians out there that nobody’s ever heard of.”

Read it all HERE..

:: Amazing Doolini

Courtesy of Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette..

When secrets are your stock in trade, it pays to keep them secret.

Hence, the first rule in the Society of American Magicians’ code of ethics: “Oppose the willful exposure to the public of any principles of the Art of Magic, or the methods employed in any magic effect or illusion.”

For working magicians, it’s a battle that has been going on since the first rabbit was pulled from a hat. Leading that battle these days is Richard Dooley, also known as the Amazing Doolini.

You can read this interesting full-length article HERE..

:: Magic at the beach

Hi All. Glad to be back after a trip to the coast. I took the time to visit a few of my magic friends in the Myrtle Beach area. Conleys House of Magic at Barefoot Landing is a must visit. Broadway Magic at Broadway at the Beach is another essential trip.

I spent a good deal of time at Thee Magic Shop at the Costal Grand Mall. Thee Magic Shop is owned and operated by Michael Bairefoot, and we agreed to an interview when I can get the questions together. Michael has a new video out called 'Coin in the Balloon', which is getting good reviews from most of the knowledgable reviewers. Here's one.. Wayne Kawamoto's Review



Sorry for the link in the post below. It worked when I published it.. I'm leaving it up for awhile to see if it comes back..

Look for more post in the very near future. I'm also an editor at BellaOnline.com, which is one of the two largest web sites in the world for women. I write the Shareware & Freeware articles, and try to balance my work there with my work here.. If you have a moment, visit Shareware at BellaOnline HERE..

:: Falling

Do you have a fear of falling? Do you dream of a pretty girl falling for you?
Check out todays dumb diversion..

Click Here

:: Marc Salem

If you're remotely familiar with the fine art of mentalism, then you know Marc Salem. Currently appearing in merry 'ol England, the Telegraph does a great job at capturing the essence of Marc..

He dramatises the unusual powers of the mind, mixing the slick, hustling showmanship of the legendary Amazing Kreskin with a dose of the heavier, more contemporary hanky-panky of Derren Brown, where the possibility of something genuinely spiritual and truly strange wafts elusively through the proceedings.

He stops his own pulse, he moves the hands on a watch forward an hour, he knows where people have been on holiday; not even four layers of tape sticking coins to his eyes can stop him knowing the serial number on a banknote he's never seen before. It's what he calls "paying attention" to abilities most people have lost, or never had.

Read the whole article HERE

:: Inside Magic

Every now and again, it's time to do the right thing. Of course, the 'right thing' in this case is not so much what I need to do, but what YOU need to do.

I have a long-standing admiration for people, not necessarily magicians, who work dilligently and tirelessly to perfect their art. Some get the recognition they deserve, others get some of the recognition they deserve.

Oz Pearlman has written to me of the many hours he spends every day working on various routines. I recently listened to Jeff McBride tell of the extent he goes to to perfect his 'practice area', and the practice, video taping, and more practicing that goes into even a small magic routine.

I know a few, as of now unknown, magicians who devote hours each day to perfecting their 'art'. You may not know them now, but in time - you will.

I tip my hat to their efforts.

And then there are those who's efforts are not directed toward a perfect second deal, or a sudden escape and reappearance off stage..

My friend, Tim Quinlan, of Inside Magic, is one of those tireless, but super talented, guys who gives his art 110% each and every day. In addition to being a very entertaining magician, Tim produces the most prodigious amount of valuable magic information daily of anyone, anywhere in the world..

Aside from "Inside Magic - All the Magic News and Information", which is updated daily, Tim mails out the daily email version of Inside Magic which is about the same size as my bi-weekly newsletter! Knowing the troubles I have producing Magic Roadshow gives me a real appreciation for Tim and the prolific volume of work, and words, he "rolls off the presses" with apparent ease.

Of course, there's more to writing than stringing together sentences. Aside from being one of the most educated guys I know, Tim is, with all respect to the popular magic magazines, the best writer in ALL of magic. He is the ONLY writer in the magic field I'm actually jealous of...

I'm sure those of you who read this blog wonder why I feel qualified to make judgements in any way related to writing. Believe it or not - I actually majored in art in college, and like to think that I have an artistic sensitivity somewhere beneath my gruff exterior.

If you aren't already a regular reader, I encourage you to visit Tim at Inside Magic and see for yourself what makes me jealous! While there, don't forget to sign up for the daily news. (You'll see the subscribe box in the right-hand nav bar..)

Inside Magic

:: Three Things

First, I want to thank all of you who took the time to write me about my latest issue of Magic Roadshow. Your thoughts mean a lot to me..

A special thanks also to those of you who responded to my 'article', I use that word loosely, about Ellusionist. I do go on a little tirade every now and again, especially if I feel someone is being particularly critical of something, or someone, they know nothing about.

Second, I won't post again until Monday. The little wife and I are going to Murrells Inlet and Charleston for a couple of days. I mentioned to a few of you that we have bought a new home, and construction is dragging a little during the dog days. So, we know that by this time next month we'll be going wide open with the move..

I look forward to it, and I'm dreading it.

Third, do yourself a favor and visit Peacelove's blog and read about his 'magical' find.. the one that didn't get away.

http://www.peacelovesmusings.blogspot.com/

:: Spirited Look

According to Scotsman.com in " A spirited look at an enigma".-

HE was denounced by George Eliot as "an object of moral disgust", by Harry Houdini as a moral pervert and "a hypocrite of the deepest dye", and as "utterly contemptible" by scientist Michael Faraday.

Who was he, and why Scotsman devote an in-depth article to his 'art'?

Read it..

:: Magic Roadshow #29

The latest issue of Magic Roadshow has been published to my site. Just thought I would give you a little advance notice. ( If you were a subscriber, you would have received this link yesterday. Of course, there's a small link in the right nav bar that will take care of this oversight.. )

This past two weeks has been a very 'special' time, and I use that word loosely. Sorry for the delay. You can read the full story in my blog post below.

Because of my problems, I have a slightly abbreviated issue this week. Not as many resources as I would have liked to share, but the one free resource I'm directing you to is a free magic ebook with over a hundred pages of tricks, mentalism, and magic..

I also have two very interesting articles by both Dennis Regling and David Breth - two magic writers and magicians extraordinaire. I'm so thankful for these two, and their willingness to share their invaluable experience with Magic Roadshow readers.

Read it Here

:: My Apologies

Sorry for the long pause between post. If it could happen - it has..

My list server, which collects all the new subscriber info and mails my newsletters, went down last week, and the estimated one day re-up turned into two, then three, then four..

I lost my internet connection Tuesday of last week, along with my TV, and promptly reported it to "Charter Communication", my cable company. Two days later a service man shows up, checks my connections, and tells me that he 'thinks' he knows what the problem is...

He knew exactly what the problem was - and I suspect he was the cause of the problem.

Up the power pole he goes. I watch as he disconnects a cable connection, and then reconnects a cable connection which was already apart. As soon as he hit the ground I ask him what was wrong.

" I think someone came out to cut off your neighbors cable and cut off yours instead.."

I waited two days to be told that my cable was purposefully cut off... All is well though - they promised to give me a credit for two days of service.

Actually, this is just part one of the story. Part two is still in the works..

----------------

If that wasn't enough, I bought a new computer.

I was without a computer this past Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. When I finally got my cable back on I spent two solid days trying to get everything migrated over to my new machine. I bought a program, "PC Relocator - The Easiest Way to Move Everything to Your New PC" to assist in moving.

That was thirty bucks thrown out the window...

When the cable came back on Thursday, I spent all night Thursday and Friday trying to get the old and new machines to transfer data. They absolutely refused to assist me in my task. So, Saturday morning I was off to Circuit City, where I bought the program, to get them to spend their time trying to work it out.

I was told they would have it ready in 24 hours. 48 hours later they called to tell me all was well. They experienced the same problem I did. Except they opened another PC relocation-type program, hooked it up, went home for the night, and it was just finishing the move when they got back in the next morning.

Anyway, I've been on-line a total of two days out of the past eight, and they were spent trying to transfer data. I spent much of today re-publishing pictures to my web sites. Some of the images that were uploaded to my sites were done so directly from " documents/my pictures ", and when the files were transfered - of course - some of the paths vanished from the face of the earth. I deserved that..

There should have been a new issue of Magic Roadshow out last night, but I just couldn't get it all together in time. I have my articles and links compiled but I still need to put it up on my web site.

It's 6:38 AM and I'm tired. Been trying to catch up on emails and edit articles all night. I suppose I'll catch some sleep until after lunch, then start all over again.

How's your week been going?

Later..

:: Google - The Last Word

This will be my last article about Google for awhile. If you have a magic related website or blog, it's important that you understand how Google works, and the many tools they freely provide for your use..

Don't underestimate the importance of this info. If I were you, I would bookmark this page or highlight this article, put it into notepad, or something similar, and save it to your desktop.

There's a world of competition out there, especially in the field of magic. But with an investment of time and a little effort, you can move your site to the forefront in Google, which, regardless of how you look at it, is still THE #1 search engine in the world.

Read it Here..

:: John Tudor & SEAM

From the Huntsville Times comes this article about this past weeks SEAM convention ( Southeastern Assoc. of Magicians), and the accompaning interview with John Tudor.

John, from Columbia S.C., aside from being my friend, just happens to be one of the top magicians in the world..

Here's what John Tudor keeps in mind when he's developing a new trick: What would it look like if it really was magic?

That's because 25 years ago, when he was dabbling in magic, Tony Slydini, the "Master of Misdirection," asked him at a magic convention, "Are you a magician, or do you just do tricks?"

Tudor was a star-struck teenager, and he couldn't come up with an answer for his hero. Shortly after that, he did.

Read the whole article HERE..

:: Ramander the 'Lizard'

What does a street magician, a lizard, and rings dipped in lemon juice have in common? On the streets of Islamabad, Ramander the magician squeeks out a living utilizing all three..

Halting at a place and taking away a lizard from his gunny bag, he cries out “ajao bazigar aaya hai tumhari taqdeer badalne (come magician has come to change your fortune),” in Bengali accent. After performing three brief magic skits of making a coin in his hand disappear and then taking it out from the hand of someone else in the crowd, bringing radio voice from his empty woven basket covered with black cloth and turning his tongue and vomiting an iron ball, he then comes to his actual business when the crowd grows.

Read the full story in: Greater Kashmir Online..

:: Fairground Magic

A recent article in Magic Roadshow detailed the advantages of seeking out magic work at county fairs this time of the year. You can earn good money and gain a world of experience working the fair. Read what two brothers in Baltimore are doing to earn extra money.. HERE

You can still read the Magic Roadshow article in it's entirety HERE..

:: David Blaine

What did New Zealander's think of David Blaines stay in a glass box above the Tower Bridge? Did the 44 days push the the limits of Blaine, or the patience of Londoners?

"I guess he must have a clearer perspective on what’s important to himself, and a lot of time to think- always scribbling in those journals and watching his glam blonde girlfriend below. I actually expected him to propose to her when he came down, but he went by ambulance to hospital and then had fish and chips at the canteen there against his doctor’s approval."

Read the Story..

:: More Mindfreak

Well, the reviews keep coming in on A&E's, Criss Angel inspired, Mindfreak. The general public is certainly watching, an average of 1.7 million viewers per show, as compaired to 1.1 million for the typical A&E primetime show.

I gave my opinion on the show in general several post ago - magic on TV is Magic, if you're in the business of magic. I have thoroughly enjoyed some of Criss's maneuvers, particularly the small vignettes of magic used to fill the time between 'great escapes'.

I am not a big fan of escapes, walking on glass, laying on nails, or hanging by fish hooks. These hindu tricks have their place, and a following of fans, I'm sure. It's just not my thing. I consider these to be 'stunts', as opposed to magic.

Criss Angel has developed the persona of a 'freak', thus the surreal images in the desert of the dyslexic family, or "sidehow". Criss tries to establish his identity as a 'freak' through a series of unnatural stunts.

I's this good TV? Maybe so..

I'm not sure how the general public views these stunts. I'm not even sure how the general public views magic in general. I can perform certain card manipulations that would leave other magicians shaking their heads. But the public would not be amazed, a little perplexed perhaps, but definitely not amazed. The level of skill, and the resulting WOW factor, magicians see embedded in a trick, and what the public see's as a WOW factor, are two entirely different standards.

It's sort of like my "Angel food cake with lots of cool whip and pineapple on top" dessert that, I promise, most of you guys would find amazing.. But I doubt seriously that Emeril Lagasse or Bobby Flay would appreciate my masterpiece.

So, magicians are not best suited to review "magic for the masses". Half the magicians out there never understood David Blaine, although the general public loved him.

Half the musicians in the 60's didn't understand or appreciate the Beatles, or the Stones, or Jimi, or Sly. And half of the musicians who did 'get it', didn't understand Metallica, or thrash rock, or alternative rock, in the eighties and nineties.

Each era viewed the next era as 'not worthy', which is exactly what has happened with Blaine and Angel. Just as the sixties far exceeded the fifties, and the nineties exceeded the eighties - in retrospect - each future era carries the banner, but is not appreciated, until the future becomes the past.

Perhaps in 2020 magicians will speak fondly of Blaine and Angel as "pioneers of magic.." Or perhaps they will be placed on the same pedestal as 'glam rockers'.

We'll see..

Read a new article in USA Today

:: Magic Castle & Jack White

The Magic Castle, magic's bastion of civility, has long maintained a tradition of dress and performance unmatched by any other magic icon. The men are still required to wear Jackets and ties, the women - eveningwear.

Admission is gained only on the arm of an academy member. And performances are strictly by invitation only. The Best of the Best..

So, what does White Stripes Jack White, a music video, and the Magic Castle have in common?

Maybe more than you would think...

Click Here

:: My New Sunday Rule

Not exactly magical, but todays Sunday, and all the normal rules are off on Sunday. Truth be known, that wasn't a rule until just now. I make the rules, you know, except when my wife makes the rules. Sometimes she lets me make the rules..

When she lets me make the rules, you end up with a bunch of stuff like this..

"I gaze at the brilliant full moon. The same one, I think to myself, at which Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato gazed. Suddenly, I imagine they appear beside me. I tell Socrates about the national debate over one's right to die and wonder at the constancy of the human condition. I tell Plato that I live in the country that has come the closest to Utopia, and I show him a copy of the Constitution. I tell Aristotle that we have found many more than four basic elements and I show him a periodic table. I get a box of kitchen matches and strike one. They gasp with wonder. We spend the rest of the night lighting farts." Unk.

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
Mariah Carey

Question: "If you could live forever, would you and why?"
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss Universe contest

"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign

I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries." The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?"
Jay Leno

"Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected".
Red Buttons

"I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain."
Carol Leifer

"You have a cough? Go home tonight, eat a whole box of Ex-Lax, tomorrow you'll be afraid to cough".
Pearl Williams

"Home is where the house is." Unk.

"Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher. That is, I used to, until she got an unlisted number." Unk.

As you make your way through this hectic world of ours, set aside a few minutes each day. At the end of the year, you'll have a couple of days saved up.

Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.

The people who think Tiny Tim is strange are the same ones who think it odd that I drive without pants.

"When I die, I want to die like my grandmother who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car."
Author Unknown.

"It's so long since I've had sex, I've forgotten who ties up whom."
Joan Rivers.

"Sex is one of the most wholesome, beautiful and natural experiences that
money can buy."
Steve Martin.

"My girlfriend said to me in bed last night, you're a pervert. I said, that's a big word for a girl of fifteen."
Emo Philips.

"There are a number of mechanical devices that increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief amongst these is the Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 convertible."
Unknown.

"You don't appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle aged woman: Stuff you pay good money for in later life."
Emo Philips.

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."
Steven Seagal.

I told you...
( Thank You BoreMe, for compiling this list.. http://www.boreme.com )